The present invention relates to a bearing assembly and, in particular, to a bearing assembly suitable for providing a pre-loaded, self-sealed, bearing unit adapted to operate under axial loads.
In some rolling mills the rolls which deform the shape that passes through the mill are carried by plain sleeve bearings which take the separating force imposed by the shape. Thrust loads, on the other hand, are taken by antifriction bearing assemblies which are generally mounted with internal radial and axial clearances. The outer races of these bearing assemblies are generally mounted with a radially loose fit in a housing and do not transmit any radial load to the bearing, while the inner race is securely mounted on the shaft which is to rotate relative to the housing. Between the inner and outer races solid rolling elements are arranged in rows and are submitted to varying amounts of skew in any unloaded row, depending on the amount of radial clearance in the bearing assembly. Skewing often results in the oil film between the rolling elements and their respective races being broken. This in turn may result in metal-to-metal contact which will cause the bearing assembly to deteriorate more quickly than would otherwise be the case.